As with us all, life is and can become very interesting. This year says it all and we are only a little over a half year done. Mrs. Toshi and I are now doing fine, Ezra is keeping us busy at a hectic pace for a four year old.
My staycations at Portage University Hospitals were interesting at best. I’m still very weak and easily fatigue. Just AB the Atlantis B-24 Liberator took its toll. But Ezra and I intend to finish it and have it completed on it’s globe shape stand.
As for my other hobby? While playing jazz in Europe through the late 80’s, I enjoyed visiting museums, chatting with people and overall learning the history of a ancient and great nation! Oh what fond memories I do have.
One such interest was “Postzegels” or postage stamp collecting in Dutch. You see, my main home was in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam. Erste Van Helders Straat was where I lived, a exciting neighborhood next to the open market.
Returning to the US and raising a family, I have been a philatelic on and off for years. Now retired, building aircraft model kits stirred my mind. Can I still do this? As a very young child, I so enjoyed building kits.
Due to health issues, I recently have been AWOL on FSM Forums. I was just too weak to get to the bench. So I started to collect stamps and teach Ezra different values of a time when things were much simpler. Though Master Ezra is now four and enjoys playing video games and iPhone/iTunes games via apps, I try to work with him on fine motor skills i.e. building kits and the historic value in philatelics. Here are just some examples:
Another type of philatelic treasure are from the Kingdom of Hawaii. Some of the most rarest stamps and covers are the Missionary variety. Although I wish I had such funds to purchase these treasures of which I would donate to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, here are just some examples.
Do any other members have another hobby they would like to share? Please feel free to post your interest here on this thread, we would all like to hear of them!
I guess I have a couple other hobbies. Many years ago I bought a 1951 Buick Special Deluxe that I enjoyed taking to local old car get togethers. Unfortunately as I have gotten older, I haven’t been able to keep the car up and running consistantly and now may have to sell him [:S]
Other than that I enjoy playing board games, both wargames and non-wargames. The wargames kind of tie into my interest in WWI, interwar and early WWII armor as well as Pre-Dreadnought warships.
And finally, professionally, I am employed as a Naval Architect. As part of my jo I have collected alot of information on ship design and over time I have been working to put some of that into a useful form of spreadsheets or programs that students and others can use to play around with ship design ideas that they may have.
The kids are both grown, on their own and doing well, the house is paid for, and we lost both dogs this year - so were both enjoying life a bit. I call myself semi-employed now doing consulting after 50+ years in academia, phamaceutical and healthcare strategy.
I’m part owner and instructor at a karate studio teaching three times a week and doing some work for our world association. I also run and care for a number of Model A’s, T’s, early V-8, and a Willys MB.
Our whole family does WWII Living History together. My nickname at the karate studio is “Doc” so of course I had to get a picture of my Jeep and me in front of Doc a couple years ago at Readings WWII Weekend.
Glad to see you back on the forums, we all missed hearing from you and seeing what young Master Ezra was up to. Your visiting authorization at the hospitals is revoked, you stay the heck out of them. Get better and stay well.
My first hobby interest is building models, both plastic and scale balsa free flight. A bit over 70 years building, I hope one day to be good at it (:>)
Next is photography, 35mm, medium and large format. Equipment is Leica M-6 TTL, several Rolleiflex’s and Hasselblad, Wisner Classic Field 4X5. Getting film processed and printed is now very difficult here, so I use a custom lab in Seattle, they do both color and black and white.
Duck stamps are a fun hobby, my brother in law got me started some time ago. The art work is just fascinating.
I’m sure glad to see you back here, I missed your frequent visits and photos. Best of everything for you, Mrs. Toshi and all of your family.
I like woodworking. My father - now long-retired - was a joiner (carpenter) & taught me the basics when I was young. I just took the knowledge for granted, and didn’t do anything with it for decades. Then I met the now Mrs 6390, who had 2 small grandsons. I made them a toy fort like the one my dad had made me when I was that age, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. Project followed project (coat racks, spice racks, garden planters, a fire surround, coffee tables), and more & more tools were collected - I’ve had a joiner’s workshop in some shape or form ever since. Last year my dad & I built my new tool cabinet together. Its made of MDF & a few bits of plywood, but to me it’s priceless. I think he mostly showed me the sheer pleasure of making things - guess who a four-year old me built (i.e. smothered in glue!) his first kits with!
Hi. I used to collect stamps when I was younger, but lost interest. I still have the albums and my wife was a very serious collector for many years. I have dallied with various things and would love to start a train set but have no room. My main hobbies these days are vegetable gardening, fishing, collecting militaria, (of which I have a fairly extensive collection), and scale models of course. But then I brought an old wooden boat, 30 feet worth of work and toil, but I love her and so do the grandkids.
Well, lets see. I started building at the age of 6 (1946) thanks to 2 uncles that kept me supplied until I was old enough to buy everything myself. Started target shooting in high school. Got on the rifle team and in senior year we won the League Championship. Started drag racing after high school. Six years later I quit cause you can’t drive your race car to work every day and race competitively with it on weekends. Went hunting with friends for the next 25 years. During that time I also raced R/Ccars and sailboats. Flew R/C planes and also indoor microfilm planes. During all those years I still built models.
Have had great times and met loads of great people. Now, at almost 80, I volunteer at Joanna Furnace, an historical site, and I restore WWII models for the Berks Military History Museum. And I still build models for myself. I guess I’m just an old plasticaholic that can’t be cured.
My other hobby, well, passion really, is something I have been into pretty much all my life. In fact, my avatar sort of shows that. I’m the little guy in the pic. So, here are a couple of pics of my other hobby. Oh, and yes, it’s expensive, but not nearly as much as you probably think…
You sir, are a very busy man. I love classic cars but have not worked on a classic since the late 90’s, early 2000. By helping the next generation with your naval spreadsheets or programs, that will enrich the young people around the world.
Wow, more classic cars, it seems to me that is a favorite American past time. Your consultation work as well as being a Doc at a karate school is most honorable!
Patrick206, it’s always good to be among FSM Forum Family! That is one of my goals, to stay far away from the hospital. I sold an old Leica many years ago, my daughters profession is photography so I’m well aware of the equipment you own and the difficulty in printing photos. I have 2 pages of Duck stamps in my stock book. I’ll take photos in a bit, I’m bathing Ezra while I reply to you sir.
Two come to mind. Gold prospecting and metal detecting.
Have half ownership in 3 claims here and looking at filing on another if the owner screws up his paperwork. Have a dredge, high banker, sluice boxes and fine recovery equipment, as well as the normal assortment of gold pans. Belong to 3 local clubs that also have claims available, and am the claims and outing director in one of them
Belong to a detecting club and now have 3 machines for different conditions, the latest one is waterproof to 100 feet.
The best part is my lady is involved in both pastimes…in fact going mining for 10 days on our claims and another we have access to. Motorhome will be base camp now that it’s almost back to normal.
You Definately have a wide variety of hobbies! I for one really enjoy Mustangs. My first car was a 1966 Mustang with a three speed shift on a old straight six. I Definately love the classic aircraft, especially the Corsair. Also the overrun countries.
Philatelic; “Stamps” can be very enriching and have great historical information. Each stamp is a miniature work of art! It seems that anytime grandchildren are involved, each time spent is precious.
